As always, I’ll start the new post with an obligatory link to the new OverDose website and forums. Over the last few years our servers have had the personality of a chronically depressed lemming and have had the tendancy to drop out of existence at the best of times. Thankfully, we have been on the new server for a good while now and its as solid as an IT nerd on the front row of a swimsuit modelling contest. So, the big shiney logo below, go ahead and play whack a mole with it:

This link will give you access to the main OverDose website where all the news gets posted first, as well as access to the [TBG] forums, which we think of as kind of our “EXTRA!” area. We post a lot of development junk, pictures and info in there that doesn’t make it to the main sites, so if you want first hand access to the inner workings of OverDose, get your filthy mitts on a forum account and get posting!

Mappers Required

It will likely come as no surprise to many of our followers here that OverDose development is currently speeding up towards something… Good. Its no secret we are aiming towards a playable alpha/beta soon in the coming months. Just look at this development chat between Nicolas, our lead programmer, and myself, for proof:

Exactly. Cool stuff, right? The main problem isn’t actually the REALLY hard work at the moment. Its not the coding, which is coming along at ludicrous speed (If it goes any faster it will go to plaid!), its not the art, which as you can tell we are keeping on top of… Sound design is sorted, music is gravy as ever, and textures/misc stuff/uis of course are put in their place on a daily basis. The hardest part, characters, is well underway, and weapons and animations are of course in progress. That leaves one area, mapping…

And this is actually the one area where we are stuck at the moment. Now, I can map, just not amazingly well as you can tell from the pics, and not as fast as a proper, Real Deal David Dickinson esque mapper can do that’s for sure. So, this is a call to arms if you will, for some actual honest to God mappers. I’ll get right down to the nitty gritty of the details and won’t beat around the bush, these are the must haves for a mapper if you want to get in touch, warts and all:

-MUSTS –

1) Must be able to map to a certain degree. I don’t want the next Q3DM6. I don’t want the next Blood Gulch. I don’t even want the next Nuke Town (But please God, don’t). What we do want however, is somebody is is comfy working with GTKRad, Radiant, Dark Rad, Doom3Rad or Quake 4 Rad. Pretty much any editor that works with Doom 3/Quake 4 maps is fine. (ODRadiant is STILL WIP, so any coders out there, give us a shout, we need a hand with that. Our ONE coder can’t do everything at once sadly).

2) Must be able to either work with existing assets or make your own. This includes textures, props, sounds, map models, anything. If you can’t then it would be swell if you had the ability to ASK for what you need, because as a mapper you should be building in basic shapes anyway at the start, so just ask us and we will get you any media done you may need.

3) Must be comfy with lighting maps in a per pixel engine. Now this is very much a kick in the balls when you fist read it, but it’s really not that hard. The basics are indeed, basic, and anything advanced can be solved by us helping you as you go. OverDose lighting is kinda like Doom 3’s in a way, only a few more options as we have real time shadow maps and the like. This is why we have a few extra tools ingame (editLights, editPostProcess, editReverb etc) to allow you to tweak stuff, ingame, for that final “you know it WILL look/sound/play this way” feel.

4) Must be able to hint and optimise your map with hints, areaPortals and the like. This isn’t Doom 3 style, its much, much more like Quake 3 in this regard. It suits the engine better.

5) Must be able to work with terrain models… And by that, I mean must be able to have some idea of how you want your terrain, if required, to look. We have people on hand who have oodles of experience here, so if you can’t make a terrain model, fall back on us. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and we don’t expect you to have intimate knowledge of an engine you haven’t worked with before.

-WHAT WE DO/DON’T EXPECT –

1) We don’t expect you to work with sound yet, as its advanced. In fact, we can do that for you with ease. But the sound editor is there for use if you want to set up your reverbs, and there are loads of presets to chose from.

2) We don’t expect you to work with post process effects, even though the editor of course, is there if you need to.

3) We don’t expect you to make your own custom effects for levels, or work with the FX editor. In fact, this is currently WIP and you likely won’t have access to this until later down the line, but as long as you know what you want, by the time you get to the stage of actually adding it, it will be up and running.

4) We expect a certain level of detail. We don’t expect the next visual treat, it just doesn’t always work that way. But a Modern Warfare 2/Black Ops level of detail in maps is essential as a base. We don’t expect you to jump in and start using really high detailed models with high poly source models for everything. The odd detailed prop in a brush based world, is fine. As long as the terrain is a mesh, the world is detailed, you don’t over use curves in places they really don’t need to be and you use map models sensibly, that’s fine.

-WHAT YOU GET IN RETURN –

1) Access every Sunday to the [TBG] family dog.

2) A front seat in the cockpit with access to at least FIVE buttons (They may even be illuminated, we just don’t know).

3) No money. Not yet, at least. OverDose is a free to play game. Any donations are of course always split over the team, and if in the future we make money, of course you will be acknowledged. But we want to make it clear here and now that OverDose is created first and foremost for the love of making games, its not made for profit. I can’t promise you anything other than gratitude and internet fame.

4) The prestigious title of “Head Of Safety”.

5) The chance to play in our nightly games of game of the day where we kick back, relaxing, maxing all cool and just have a laugh. [TBG] is the most relaxed group of artists and coders you will likely see, we are all friends. Except Ben. Hes the new guy, and he has yet to earn my trust… But he shows promise! But everybody else is pretty much old friends now.

So there you have it. Cards on the table. Warts and all. We don’t want the Earth. We don’t want “the next big thing”. We just want a nice, detailed map from a guy that has the patience to work with us side by side, and hopefully improve his own work flow at the same time. You don’t have to be currently Mapping Lead at Epic. You don’t have to be Tim Willits Personal Note Taker. You just have to have the drive to make something good and want to learn in the process. If that’s you… Get in touch, we would LOVE to hear from you.

If any of this floats your boat, get in touch! Would make a nice Christmas present. You can contact me on the following emails:

I have mailed you a while back about Overdose, and we did write about mapping too. I have made tons of maps over the last 10 years, but only sp-maps. i am not sure if i am the right man for this project, although i do love the high quality Overdose has till now.
Should you not find much and or even any mapper then i am available to help out. Just let me know.

I would love to help you guys but I havn't touched the Radiant engine for several years and only made a test map for Doom 3. I have been focusing on UDK right now instead and obviously won't help you.
Since Radiant supports ASE files, I can do some static models for you.
Otherwise Good luck!